


Broken Promises

by somanyfeels



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Howard Stark's not terrible but not good parenting, Kid Tony, Sick Tony, Tony Feels, not a stand alone fic, part of a series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4077565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somanyfeels/pseuds/somanyfeels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Howard broke a promise to Tony and locked himself in his lab to work on his projects.  </p><p>Takes place before 'The One Left Stranded'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends, it's been a bit of time before I added an accompanying oneshot to the big fic but here it is. An update is coming soon, it's halfway done. I hope you enjoy this little snippet.

Howard didn’t really pay attention to the clock when he was locked away in the basement working on something big.  This time it was a missile, one that could lock on to targets and follow them easily with better turning radius.  It would be more accurate this way.  He didn’t care how long it took him to get it right, he was going to keep working on the designs until he had a breakthrough.

 

He probably missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner and he didn’t know what time it was but he knew he had to be close.  The designs for the missile would have made it too heavy and throw off the accuracy.  He needed to make it lighter, faster, better.  The military needed better missiles.

 

Howard was jerked out of his thoughts by a soft knock on the door.  He was going to ignore it, went back to focusing on his designs.  Perhaps if he changed the materials it was made out of.  There were plenty of quality metals that were light enough for this particular project.  Now that the threat of war against the Soviets has ended people thought the arms race was over as well.  Just the opposite, a new enemy will pop up before the country could even pause for breath.  America had to be ready and Howard was going to make sure the military had the best damn weapons possible.

 

Another knock on the door drew his thoughts away from his project and he sighed loudly as he went to go see who it was.  He climbed the stairs and stopped in front of the door.  A quick glance at the clock told him it was almost midnight.

 

“What do you want?”  Howard asked as he opened the door to reveal a very tired looking child wearing light blue footed pajamas and had a mess of dark curls sticking up on his head.  “Come on, Tony.  Daddy’s working and you know not to disturb him when he’s working.”

 

Tony looked up at him, his eyes still unfocused with sleep, his face was flushed a deep red, and if Howard listened carefully he could hear the boy sniffling.  “Can’t sleep.”  Tony muttered quietly.

 

Howard sighed.  Tony’s bottom lip quivered slightly and he had to bend down and pick him up.  “Do you promise to be good and not touch anything.  I’m serious, don’t touch anything.”  Howard asked slowly.  Tony nodded quickly.

 

They walked back down into the basement and Howard carried Tony over to the large collection of cars.  There was a bright red sports car closest to Howard’s workbench that Tony adored, Tony liked to sit inside of it and pretend to be a racecar driver and Howard could still see and hear him while he worked. 

 

“You missed dinner.”  Tony whispered softly as Howard opened the car door and slid Tony inside.  “You promised you would come to dinner.”

 

“I know, buddy, but sometimes things don’t always work out how we wanted them to.”  Howard said.  Once Tony was seated in the car, the keys were still locked away in his desk drawer so there was no way he could accidently start it, Howard walked back over to his workbench to finish looking at the designs.

 

“But you promised.”

 

“I know, but I had work to do.”  Howard said.  He glanced up when Tony sneezed, the boy was sick.  Usually if he was sick he would get up in the middle of the night and go find Maria or Jarvis and Anna.  Tony only ever came down to Howard’s workshop on rare occasions.  “Why didn’t you go find your mother if you’re sick?  She can take care of you better than I can.”

 

“I know.  I wanted to see you before the morning.”  Tony said, yawning loudly.  “You missed my birthday.”

 

Howard paused with his pencil in hand getting ready to scribble out a few equations to make the missile more aerodynamic.  “I did?”  He asked, his gaze snapping up to see Tony half asleep and slumped over slightly in the driver’s seat of the car.  “I’m sorry, buddy.  I didn’t realize.  I was just… busy.”

 

“That’s okay.”  Tony said softly.  “I’m six now.  You can come to my seventh birthday.”

 

Howard nodded, abandoning his work and walking over to Tony.  “Okay, tell you what.  For your next birthday I’ll skip work and I’ll take you to Coney Island.  Would you like that?”

 

“Yeah.  I want to ride all the roller coasters and then we can get cotton candy and then you can fly us around on your airplane and then I want to get pizza.”  Tony said quickly, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. 

 

Howard laughed, nodding.  “Whatever you want.”

 

“Promise?”

 

Howard nodded again, leaning down to gently kiss Tony’s forehead.  “Yes, I promise.  Now go to sleep.  I have work to do and you’re a distraction.”

 

He walked back to his workbench, all inspiration on the aerodynamics lost and the equation he had just had in his mind was forgotten.  All there was now was the loud snoring of Tony in the car.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler alert in case you haven't read the main fic of this series 'The One Left Stranded', Tony actually get's kidnapped a few months after that so Howard doesn't end up taking him to Coney Island. Poor baby.  
> Feel free to comment or follow my [tumblr](http://themaximovs.tumblr.com/)


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